In a cellular wireless system, subscribers (users) typically move. As a result, each subscriber may be required to handoff from one base station to another in order to maintain acceptable wireless link quality between the subscriber and the wireless system. The link quality can vary from cell to cell, and within cells.
Subscribers located at the edges of the cells generally receive signals having substantially less signal carrier to interference-plus-noise ratio (CINR) than receivers located very close to a transmitting base station. Therefore, subscribers located close to the transmitters can typically support much higher data rates than subscribers located far away from the transmitters.
Some wireless systems (for example, WiMAX wireless systems) include multiple MCS (modulation and coding scheme). Ideally, the MCS is selected based at least in part on the quality of the wireless link. Additionally, multi-carrier systems, such as OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexed), can vary scheduling of sub-carrier transmission based on, for example, frequency selectivity of the wireless link.
It is desirable to have a system and method for improved handoff selection, and transmission mode selection of a subscriber within a cellular wireless system.